New game starting on PBW, "THE GREAT EXPIRIMENT"

geoschmo · #1 July 26th, 2001, 07:18 PM

Nothing I suppose. Although I think the risk of damage to your ship is very great. And how many opponents will you be able to take out this way? One, two at the most, if you are VERY lucky. Out of maybe ten races? (depending on how much interest this gets.) Even if you survive you may damage your reactor or engines, which will severly limit your ability to find a suitable planet to colonize.

Plus, there will be a nasty suprise for anybody who tries to loiter around in the starting system too long. But I will let you wait for the game to see that.

Or maybe I'll come up with a way to prevent that outright before the game starts. I'll let you know.

Geo

geoschmo · #2 July 26th, 2001, 07:49 PM

I suppose the easiest way to deal with this is to give the "seed ship" stealth ability, and no sensors. Then noone can attack you, cause they can't see you. This will also lend an element of mystery, since you will not know where the other empires are until they plant roots somewhere. This could be very interesting, cause you could find a planet you like, drop ship, and find out someone else established in the same system on the same turn. Also would add more of the risk reward equation to how long do you stay in the seed ship?

Geoschmo

Suicide Junkie · #3 July 26th, 2001, 08:11 PM

If the colonizers don't have shields, and are designed identically, then they will have the same hitpoints, and both should die when they ram. Not a very good strategy.

quote:
Plus, there will be a nasty suprise for anybody who tries to loiter around in the starting system too long. But I will let you wait for the game to see that.

First thing I thought was: Unstable Star.
Next thought: Either he was lucky to get that random event, and decided to pretend he's planned it all along, or he changed the rules to make one happen every turn, and reloaded the game until his starting system became unstable.
Then: Or maybe, he's got something else in mind - black hole effect? An AI attack ship? Damage-causing storms?

quote:
Or maybe I'll come up with a way to prevent that outright before the game starts. I'll let you know.

All humans should be bright enough to start looking for a home right away. If you aren't going to move out of the start system by your second turn, you've already lost the game.

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Alpha Kodiak · #4 July 26th, 2001, 08:15 PM

Will you have enough resources once you colonize to build up the home world? You will need to build a space port, followed by resource producers, research facilities, a resupply facility, ship yard and maybe some things I am forgetting.

The idea sounds really interesting, but you'll want to make sure that there are enough starting resources to get the new homeworld going.

Suicide Junkie · #5 July 26th, 2001, 08:25 PM

There is a basic, minimum empire production of 100 of each resource in SE4 classic. That will be enough to finish your first mineral miner, and you can then build a farm and radiocatives extractor with those minerals.

As long as your colony ship dosen't sit around too long, soaking up money for maintenance, you will still have stored resources to start with. Even if you plant at the Last second, you will have the basic income for spaceport & extractor construction.

PS:
I would also suggest that the mod used for this game have a minimum resource income set to 500 or more (Enough for an extractor after 3 turns of waiting)

Since SpacePorts take 3 turns, and 5 or 6 thousand minerals, the natural merchants trait would be more valuable than normal!

------------------
The latest info on Pirates & Nomads (forum thread).
-<Download V2.1>- (Now with extra scenario support!)
-<Download V1.7>- (With default AIs patched)
-<Download compatible EMPs for P&N v1.2 through v1.7>-
-<Download SJs latest AI Patcher>-
Visit My Homepage

Other Links:
-<Play By Web>-
-<Schlock Mercenary>- (great space-based webcartoon)
-<8-bit Theater>- (fun comic with the pixellated FF1 characters)

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 26 July 2001).]

geoschmo · #6 July 26th, 2001, 08:49 PM

IIRC the empire income is 200 of each per turn. Base storage is 50K of each per turn. I will make sure it's set up so that when you land your ship somewhere you are at the 50k in each resource. That will be your "starting point". That should give you plenty to get started on your faciliites. It's going to be a slow start, no doubt about that. If that is a problem, this isn't the game for you.

I will be running the turns offline until everybody gets planted. This is so the seed ship maintenance doesn't eat into your resource storage. Once everybody has found their new homes I will be turning it over to PBW for auto turn processing. Because of this I am staying away from anything that would require modded data files after the second phase of the game begins. (There is a bug with 1.41 that causes the command line mod support that was added not to work right.)

Geoschmo

Quikngruvn · #7 July 26th, 2001, 09:06 PM

quote:
Originally posted by geoschmo:
Your colony ship will have supply sufficient to reach anywhere in the quadrant. Probably a quantum reactor. You will not have the understanding to build these though....

Clarification: we won't be able to build quantum reactors or colony ships? I think I know the answer to this question, but just want to be sure! Not being able to build colony ships would be nothing short of diabolical!

Quikngruvn (getting his empire ready as we speak)

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"That which does not kill you will make you stronger." -- Nietzsche